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The amiable army
The amiable army What an impressive army of look-alike little figures! That was my first reaction when I bumped into them on the grounds of the Buddhist Hase-dera temple in Kamakura. On closer examination some of their faces show slightly different features. There must be a few different moulds from which the statues are made,…
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Wishful thinking
I wonder if I should reconsider my stand on religion somewhat. In earlier posts of this blog I have spoken – illustrating my point with pictures – of the ‘folklore of faith’, implying that apart from its popular forms, there is also a more serious and fundamental side to religion. The latter would be of…
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Jai Golu Devta …
So what are the requests like, that the worshippers of Goludev ask from him? They write their petitions on paper, which allows us to take a closer look at some of them. “Jai Golu Devta! My name, Priyanshu Gagola! Make me successful in finishing the 12th standard! May I get a government job! May I…
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Goludev the bell lover
I have never been able to really understand the meaning of the word ‘praying’, or maybe I should say ‘the act of praying’. One prays to god – at least according to my catholic upbringing – but since I can’t imagine anything when hearing or reading the word ‘god’, praying to god doesn’t make sense…
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Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
Popular belief or the folklore of faith is, in general, what religion means to the common man. It is its most widespread manifestation, not only in Catholicism, but in other religions as well. There’s a lot of suffering in the world and people are often subjected to great stress, either self imposed, or by their…
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Treasure-house Venice
One of the nice things of the Italian pavilion at the 2011 Biennale in Venice was the continuity one experienced when stepping out of the exhibition venue into the different nooks and corners of this always enchanting city. Both inside and outside one felt surrounded by the same mixture of folkloric frivolity and renaissance seriousness.…
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The art is not our thing
Art critic and politician Vittorio Sgarbi was chosen as curator of the Italian pavilion at the 54th Biennale in Venice (2011). Since he is known not to like modern art and even less its organizational “mafia”, his nomination was rather controversial. He decided not to select the works for the exhibition himself but to ask…
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Art is my thing
The experience of art in all its manifestations (literature, music, visual arts) is occupying a privileged place in my mental and intellectual life. I could say: in my spiritual life, but I always hesitate using that word since it has these strong religious connotations I’d like to avoid. With acknowledgement and approval I quote what…
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Taking a break
We are here in the Swiss Alps at an altitude of 2000 meters on a trek around the Muverans and I am standing at the exact spot from where I took last week’s picture of landscape with horseman. While that photo clearly was a landscape, I wouldn’t call this one a landscape with goats, the…
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Landscape with horseman
As we noted in last week’s post, a picture of a beautiful landscape normally doesn’t create the emotion that the viewer experienced when he looked at it in reality and which caused him decide to take the picture. What is it then that makes a photo of a landscape potentially interesting? I don’t know if…
καιρός remembered
… the right moment, position chosen, shoot …
καιρός remembered 